The cooking of foods by means of barbecuing has been popular for many years, and in recent times many restaurants have specialized in the preparation and serving of such foods. One example of such recent developments is the so-called mesquite food taste that is obtained by exposing the food to burning mesquite.
The usual method of preparing such foods is to cook them over an open flame. The fat from the food drips into the flame and the resulting flare-up chars the food, while the smoke generated from the fire provides the food with a smoked flavor.
The inventor is aware of many devices which are suitable for such barbecuing, With the home barbecue grille being quite popular.
However, such devices have many drawbacks when considered for home use, and many additional drawbacks when considered for use in a professional restaurant situation.
For example, the exposing of food directly to an open flame, While providing a desired barbecue flavor, also exposes that food to being charred in a manner that may be dangerous to one's health. Recent studies have indicated that food that has been charred in this manner may be carcinogenous.
Still further, such direct exposure may raise the possibility of a grease fire due to the dripping of grease directly into an open flame. As is well known, grease fires are extremely dangerous. For this reason, a home barbecue unit that exposes food directly to an open fire should never be left unattended.
In addition to the above, such method of cooking is not at all conducive to producing repeatable results. That is, the food may be smoked to just the right flavor one time, but over- or under-cooked the next due to differences in cooking conditions. This is not an entirely suitable condition for the home unit, but is not at all acceptable to a professional restaurant which must be able to provide food that is uniform from one serving to the next. Still further, due to the above-discussed dangers of grease fires, the restaurant situation is exacerbated as the fires are often large and thus should definitely not be left unattended. This may be wasteful of both manpower and difficult to achieve.
Accordingly, there is need for a unit that can both cook food in a safe and repeatable manner that can be closely controlled, yet is safe to operate, and which can be operated in an unattended manner yet will still produce safe, repeatable and precise results.
Another desirable attribute of a cooking means is efficiency. Efficiency can be achieved by a having a cooking unit perform more than one function. That is, some designs have attempted to combine cooking with warming functions to make the cooking units somewhat more efficient. However, the inventor is not aware of any cooking unit that can both cook food and smoke that food in the same unit in a manner that also satisfies the above-stated conditions and overcomes the above-stated drawbacks associated with known devices that are used to produce food having a smoked flavor.
Accordingly, there is need for a unit that can both cook and smoke food in an efficient manner while still overcoming the above-mentioned drawbacks.